I love this time of year in San Francisco. The rainy season gives way to early blooms, celebrated by events like Bouquets to Art at the De Young Museum. The annual exhibition features original works from 150 local floral designers inspired by art from the museum’s collection. Here are a few pictures from the member’s night:

After my trip to Japan, I was inspired to try learning ikebana, the art of flower arrangement. There are a few different schools of ikebana; the Ikenobo Ikebana Society, the oldest ikebana organization in the world (nearly 550 years old!), has a location in San Francisco. Through this local branch I found a wonderful teacher named Keiko, who is teaching me the basic principles of ikebana.

So far I’ve learned both moribana/freestyle and shoka styles. It’s a relaxing and meditative process, based on principles that follow the order of nature. I’ll post more pictures from other lessons soon.

Tetsunori Kawana‘s work in redefining ikebana is nothing short of ambitious, and often requires large teams of people and weeks of production. Here are some photos of his work — these and more stunning images can be found on his website.

Kawana has also been commissioned by the Mint Museum to produce a new bamboo installation for Project Ten Ten Ten, which celebrates the museum’s grand opening in October.